Study on the constant force control of aero-engine blade grinding robot considering time delay

The aero-engine blade grinding system has time delay problem, which leads to large fluctuation of grinding force and eventually affects the surface roughness of the blade. To address this problem, this paper combines the improved Smith prediction algorithm with active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) to propose the filter Smith-ADRC control algorithm, which consists of three parts, namely, the main controller, the compensator and the filter. It is firstly simulated and analyzed in Matlab/Simulink platform, and then the robot grinding system is constructed for experimental verification, which is executed by the robot for position control and by the end-effector for force control. Both simulation and experimental results show that the grinding system with filter Smith-ADRC controller has good control effect and stability. The surface roughness of the blade is 0.3503 μm after grinding, which is better than other control algorithms such as ADRC and Smith’s predictive control. Consequently, the filter Smith-ADRC control algorithm can overcome the time delay problem of the system and improve the grinding accuracy and quality.